Chapter 104 Lessons 1

“Hello Margaret” Jay entered the adventurer association with a smile.

“Oh hello. I’ll go tell Viladore you’re back. He should be ready by now.”

“Thanks.” Jay waited patiently in the lobby.

–

*Knock knock*

“Viladore? Hello? Your star pupil is here.” Margaret joked as she entered Viladore’s office.

As she looked towards Viladore, he shook his head, pursing his lips while he stared at the black cube on his desk.

“Mh, can he come back later?” he asked with a frustrated voice.

“You’ve already asked him to come back. I can’t send him away again ok? You’re going to get in there and teach him.” she said with a commanding yet encouraging voice.

Viladore sighed. He couldn’t argue with the sweet old lady, even though he wanted to.

“Ok… I’ll be there in a moment.” he waved his hand and Margaret left the room.

“Damn… this kid has to come right when my cube detects mana again.” Viladore thought as he watched his cube begin to grow once more.

A strange thought came across his mind but he dismissed it.

“Hm… no. Surely it couldn’t be.”.

A strange feeling crept over him though as he thought that perhaps there was a correlation between Jay and the black cube.

He shook his head trying to dismiss the thought again, still staring at his cube.

“Surely not…”

“How far is limb growth?”

“Appendage growth 71% complete.”

“Good.. keep it up.” Viladore said with a smile as he stood up from his desk. He really didn’t want to leave, but Sullivan had ordered him to specifically teach Jay and he simply couldn’t refuse.

After all, it was Sullivan who allowed Viladore to do his experiments without much oversight. Sullivan would only have a problem if there was property damage or injury.

No one except Sullivan knew that Viladore was conducting dangerous research here, and Viladore wished to keep it that way, lest he be hunted down.

Viladore went into the lobby, finding Jay. He was in quite a hurry because he wanted to get back to his desk to keep analysing his cube.

“Jay? Let’s go.” he gestured to the hallway.

Jay promptly got up with a nod., deciding not to say anything as it seemed like Viladore seemed quite flustered today.

“Is he annoyed with me?” Jay could only wonder. “Maybe he was mad that I didn’t show up yesterday?”

Jay could only guess, already assuming it was his fault; a mix of insecurity and narcissism.

He decided he would try to learn from Viladore as quickly as he could today as perhaps it would improve his teachers mood.

They entered the training yard at the back of the compound, and a new set of target-rocks had replaced the old ones.

“Have a seat.” Viladore said as he began to float cross-legged.

“I’m busy so I’ll try and make this quick. Two lessons today – detect and medium channelling.”

Viladore checked his notebook before putting them back into his pocket.“Medium channelling is similar to spell channelling, so we will leave that till last. First up is mana sense.”

He looked at Jay with a bored expression, clearly not wanting to be here.

“Mana sense is not sensing mana, but it’s using mana to sense other things. It’s quite easy to do but requires concentration to keep it active – though if you train hard and persevere at it, you will be able to keep it active, even while you sleep.”

He continued “Think of it like another sense.”

“This seems useful,” Jay thought, slowly nodding as he listened more attentively.

“First, I will increase the ambient mana here.” he said.

Suddenly the mana in the air was dense. To Jay it felt like a small pressure was applied to his mind, though it was a good feeling; like wearing a thick hood on a cold day.

“Now try to funnel your mana into your mind and outwards, and use that to feel the ambient mana.”

Jay did as he instructed and soon he felt it, a strange feeling like there was water around him; he could tell where it was and where it was flowing.

It was like a small sphere of water that he could sense, though it didn’t go too far from him. The water-feeling extended about two meters away from him.

“Now, you probably won’t be able to sense very far, and that will get better with practice, but the way to sense things is simple – you look for the void. The absence of the feeling. Since mana can pass through inanimate objects, it will only tell you the presence of things that are circulating either their own mana or blocking mana, which can be anything from mana crystals, certain trees, and of course other adventurers.”

“Now, try to sense me.” Viladore floated forward towards Jay.

After a few minutes Jay finally felt like he stabilised the feeling, and could now try to analyse his surroundings.

To Jay, it seemed like there was a hollow gap in the water-feeling, and he slowly pointed at Viladore.

“Good. Remember to keep practising this, even while you’re walking home. Soon you will be able to sense further and will start to do it naturally.”

“I see.” Jay decided to keep concentrating while Viladore continued his lesson.

“Now, I know you’re going to want to keep using your mana sense, but I don’t want the next lesson to be slow, so just don’t.” Viladore said with a slight smile, knowing exactly what Jay was thinking. He then dispersed the ambient mana so that it would be ever harder for Jay to sense.

Jay internally sighed and stopped trying.

“Now..” Viladore pulled out a red stick from his inventory and handed it to Jay.

Jay analysed the stick as he grabbed it.

<[Vibrance Wand]>

[Spell channel Tier 1]

“This stick is similar to the green crystals you will have found in the Carter’s Demise dungeon last week. We use it to channel spells.”

“Similar to the spell you learnt last time, you channel your mana into it – except instead of launching the tooth, the mana exists on the other side, creating the spell effect.”

“You can’t use spells that require ingredients with these, but you can increase a spell’s potency.”

Viladore began to channel a small spell in his bare hand, a blueish-white arrowhead shape was formed from his mana, which he launched at a target-rock.

*shh – DOON~*

The spell created a small shockwave around it as it hit the rock, and a few of the smaller pebbles around the rock’s base were pushed away.

Next, he took out a second red wand and began channelling the exact same spell.

“I’m using the same amount of mana for this.” he glanced at Jay.

The blueish-white arrowhead shaped spell appeared, but this time it seemed to have more defined edges, as if it was more in focus somehow. Jay could tell with a single look that it was much more threatening now.

With a flick of his wrist, Viladore released the spell.

*SHH – DOOONNM~*

The spell smashed against the rock and a small gust of wind was kicked up from it. The pebbles around the base of the rock were all pushed away and the large target-rock was also moved a few centimetres.

Jay’s mouth was agape from the shocking difference before a smile began to form on his face. He was excited to try this.

“Now you try” Viladore still seemed bored by comparison, he had done this countless times. It was like he was following a script at this point.

Jay was about to channel a spell but realised his only spell is the unstable tooth spell, which requires ingredients. The ingredients being a tooth.

“Uh, I don’t have any spells that -”

“It’s ok. Just try to push your mana through the wand. When you learn a spell, the same concept will apply.” Viladore cut him off.

Jay lightly frowned, as he wanted to learn a spell that only used mana. With a nod, he continued following the instructions.

Pushing the mana in his body, he moved it to his hand and then began trying to push it into the wand, but for whatever reason, the mana was not going in.

“Come on…” he thought, trying to push harder as he clenched his teeth.

His hand started to shake, his body and mind was telling him to drop the wand but he kept fighting it, though it was like an invisible barrier was around the wand, it really did not want anything to do with Jay’s mana.

“Stop.” Viladore said, seeing Jay struggle.

Jay stopped immediately and looked up at Viladore who had a confused expression.

“It’s not letting me push mana into it. It’s like a shield is blocking me.”

“Hmm…” Viladore took the wand from Jay’s hand and repeated his spell.

“It’s fine… there’s nothing wrong with the wand.” he thought, before turning to Jay to explain.

“Usually, the wands pull your mana into itself. Mana actually prefers to travel through these objects.” he looked puzzled “I don’t understand…”